


Hivescratched

by Starcrossedsky



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi, Prescratch Alternia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-13
Updated: 2011-12-05
Packaged: 2017-10-26 01:32:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/277088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starcrossedsky/pseuds/Starcrossedsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Universes ago, but not many, twelve trolls played a game. It was a game to create a new universe - a game they were never meant to win.</p><p>Faced with only one chance to complete their objective, they Scratched. Their session null, their bonds of friendship erased, they were scattered throughout history, and their memories of the lost world scattered throughout paradox space.</p><p>One boy, who had once been their leader, remembered. Bits and pieces, until his death, when the quest for memory brought him deep within the dream bubbles.</p><p>Here, you have found him. Would you like the hear his story?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Here's this monstrosity. Which I started for NaNo 2011, and that is a challenge I am now hopelessly behind on.
> 
> But I don't intend to stop. Not as long as I have story to tell.
> 
> Glub.
> 
> Dedicated to: Cygna and Kaos, my betasibs/prescratch!world building buddies; Mochi, forever my artbro; Bramble, my post!Scratch world building buddy; all of the crew in Guardians of Destiny, but especially Twi and Kingdom; and of course you, readerfolk.

\----

My name is Mityrs Kulira. My trolltag was crashingGenesis.

I can't imagine that you've ever heard of me. That name exists in no records on your Alternia, because I was not raised in the usual manner of trolls. I was not born in the usual manner of trolls, hatched from the egg laid by a mother grub. I crashed to the ground on a meteor, just as you did, and because of my strange blood color, I had neither lusus nor sign to my name. Because of this, when I became known to the world, I was called the Signless.

The tale of my life as the Signless was erased by the order of her Imperial Condescension, the Empress of Alternia at the time. It passed into forgotten history, into myth, but I had paved the way for the one who shared my blood color, my Descendant, my Ancestor, who would come after me.

I came here to tell you a story. But it is not that story. The story I came to tell you is not an act. It is the prelude.

<==Hivescratched


	2. Act -1.1: Just play

The day it all began was my sixth Wiggling Day.

On our Alternia, young trolls lived within a single city, known as the City of Birth, until their sixth Wiggling Day. At that time, most trolls left to begin seeking a permanent site for their hive, although some remained in the City through adulthood in order to help care for the mother grubs and raise future generations. As the youngest of my friends, I was the last to come of the age to be able to leave on my own, so you can imagine how restless I was. Although we still kept in touch by means of computers, and our group's jade blood intended to remain in the city, the rest of my friends were spread far across the continent.

I had spent the three nights before packing my sylladex full of all my most prized possessions. I had prepared my strife specibus, pistolkind, with the best equipment I could afford. I had even gone outside the city to meet the lusus that would accompany me on my journey; I had been shocked to find that there would even be one attracted to my unusual blood color. Although the crablike creature was hardly my first choice, I had grown a bit fond of him already.

The only things I had left to pack were my computer and the presents I would be given at the celebration later this evening. Normally, a Leavetaking Celebration is a small ceremony between a young troll, their direct guardians, and a few of their friends who live still in the city or close by, but because of my blood color and my unusual birth, tonight the entire city would be celebrating.

I sat at my desk, its drawers empty, staring at my computer screen, hoping one of my friends would log on. The last thing I wanted to do was go downstairs and join the party. I intended to avoid the celebrations going on in my name until the last possible moment. Once I left my block, I would be the center of attention all evening.

Let me explain.

Many sweeps ago, Alternia was divided into many nations. These nations were mostly divided by blood color; although some trolls left their nation of birth for other places, most simply lived their entire lives in the same place. One day, a troll with blood that matched no nation appeared.

If he had a wiggler name, it is lost to us now. No one knows where he came from, although it is said he fell from the sky fully grown, as we fell as naught but grubs. History knows him as the Traveller, because he traveled between the nations, speaking to their rulers of his vision. A vision of a united, peaceful Alternia, where trolls of every color stood together as equals and friends.

The rulers at first dismissed him as mad, but slowly, they began to listen. First the city of jade bloods, which would later burn in what is known as the Last War, then the yellow bloods and psychics of the mountain cliffs that surround the sea the city sits beside, then the green bloods in the wilds of the north and the teal bloods of the forests to the south. One by one, the ten nations of that time, as well as the island people who served the Seer, became one people. This was the Unification, although it was hardly a single event; it took nearly a century for peace to come to those nations, and longer still for it to spread around the world as it is now.

Since that time, in all the world, only one troll has been born with the same blood color as the Traveller. It was predicted that this troll, and eleven others, would create a new era for our race, and that he would travel not our world, but among the planets themselves.

That troll, with red blood brighter than any other, is me.

It's a lot of pressure on my shoulders; you understand, right? Since I can remember, everyone has always had such great expectations of me. I resented it; I didn't like feeling like my fate was decided for me by some accident of birth that gave the same blood color as a hero of our people. I was never meant to be a hero, I told myself.

(It turned out that I was right. But that's getting ahead of things.)

Because of that, I often took to hanging out in anonymous forums in the internet, typing in a grey shade that concealed my blood color. On the internet, no one expects you to be a hero. It was an escape for me, and also where I met most of my friends. They all knew my blood color, but none of them commented on the fact that I still chose to talk to them in grey. Well, except for one.

\-- gallivantingCausality [GC] began trolling crashingGenesis [CG] \--

GC: wh4t, not off 3njoy1ng your p4rty?   
CG: 6od no. You know how I hate bein9 in the spotli9ht. I'm not 9oin9 down there until I absolutely have to.   
GC: >:[ 4nd you'r3 st1ll typ1ng 1n th4t l4m3 anonygr3y.  
GC: 1 c4n't b3l1ev3 you st1ll do th4t.   
CG: I can't believe we still have this conversation every time we talk. The 9rey is stayin9.   
GC: you'r3 such a w1ggl3r, m1tyrs.  
GC: s1x sw33ps old and pout1ng l1k3 you'r3 two.   
CG: I'm not poutin9.  
CG: And I'm not adorable, either, so don't even bother typin9 it.  
GC: but you 4r3 4dor4bl3!

Her name is Madira Gliese, and she was my second in command for most of the game. She had teal blood, but her trademark color was bright red; our relationship was kind of strange at first because of that. She always used to harass me over hiding my blood color, because she thought it was the prettiest of all colors. Madira saw the world in black and white a lot of the time—figuratively, I mean. She didn't go blind until later. I met her on a debate forum about a sweep and a half before then, and even though we argued a lot, we were very good friends.

CG: Is there somethin9 you actually wanted to talk about, or did you just 9et online to harass me a9ain?   
GC: y34h, th3r3 1s!  
GC: but you'll h4v3 to 4sk d1osr1 about 1t, not m3.

Diosri Diploi was our two-obsessed techhead psychic. He was insanely bipolar, and at times you could never know what might set him off. But once he got over whatever it was, he would always apologize. He kind of had a thing about red and blue, and he always wore a sweatervest of some sort along with those ridiculous two toned glasses of his. He's my best friend, for two lifetimes, but I don't really get him at all.

CG: Why?   
GC: 1t's your pr3s3nt from us. h3 m4n4g3d to f1n1sh 1t just 1n t1m3.  
GC: m4yb3 1t'll 3v3n d1str4ct you from h4t1ng your p4rty!   
CG: Haha, I doubt it.

\-- crashingGenesis [CG] ceased trolling gallivantingCausality [GC] \--

\-- crashingGenesis [CG] began trolling technoAlchemist [TA] \--

CG: Madira said to bother you.   
TA: typiical  
TA: 2he probably 2poiiled what iit ii2 two diidn't 2he?   
CG: No. All she said was that it would distract me from the party.   
TA: heheh  
TA: yeah iit'll do that  
TA: iit'2 that game ee and ii have been workiing on  
TA: we fiinally fiinii2hed iit

"EE," if you can't follow Diosri's opaque nickname for her, is Gehena Mesari, our maroon-blood archaeologist type. She and Diosri had been working on compiling a video game from the ruins at the center of the Old City, but they hadn't been able to finish because half the code was missing. When Gehena left the city, she went looking for the other half, and she finally found it in the temples on the volcanic island in the center of the Inner Sea, where the Isleseer, her ancestor, once lived. She stayed there for quite a while, translating the ruins (she was always kind of a librarian type) and sending the information to Diosri, who compiled the code with his bizarre psychic hacker skills.

(He tried to tell me about what he was doing, once. I know a little bit about coding, but the stuff he was talking about was so far over my head that it gave me a headache. I never tried to talk computers with him again.)

CG: You did?   
TA: yeah  
TA: well not the playte2tiing  
TA: ii wa2 hopiing you and madiira would help u2 wiith that  
TA: you know before you left   
CG: Can I say "hell yes" stron9ly enou9h for you?   
TA: you 2ure you got the tiime?   
CG: I have been sittin9 here listenin9 to you two chatter about how awesome this is 9oin9 to be for how lon9 now?  
CG: I'm not needed downstairs for another two hours, at least.   
TA: okay cool  
TA: here2 the fiile2

He sent me two files (always twos), 2GRUB2erver.exe and 2GRUBcliient.exe. I really did call it 2GRUB for about three hours. Stupid lousy goddamn typing quirk.

TA: you'll be runniing the cliient app fiir2t  
TA: madiira ii2 your 2erver player  
TA: you'll be the fiir2t per2on iin for the red team   
CG: Dare I assume that the other team is blue?   
TA: oh 2hut up  
TA: wa2 iit really that obviiou2?   
CG: Yes. Yes it was.  
CG: Who are our other teammates?   
TA: na2hiir chyno2 loptra and a2trae   
CG: You mean 6ehena didn't want to play with her roleplay buddies?

Gehena, Madira, Chynos Braska, and Loptra Antare had roleplayed together since anyone can remember. The four of them, sometimes dragging the rest of us along, used to get into all kinds of trouble out at the ruins. They each had an identical scarf, black with stripes in their blood colors at one end, that they all wore all the time. They were really close.

Chynos is a brown-blooded troll with the most impressive set of horns I've seen in two universes. He was always confident, not cocky like Loptra, but in a way that soothed people to be around. He has a psychic power that allows him to commune with wild beasts; pretty useful when your group spends a lot of time exploring ruins full of possibly dangerous lusii and other monsters. I remember that everyone was really surprised that he chose the smallest lusus anyone had ever seen for his companion, a miniature bull with fluttery insect wings. Chynos just smiled and told us that size wasn't everything.

Whatever he didn't take care of, you could be sure Loptra would try to handle it all by herself. She was bold and forward, sometimes cruel, but she really cared about the rest of us deep down. She often tried to imitate her infamous pirate ancestor in her roleplaying, throwing her dice as though they were some kind of terrible weapon, although in her hands they actually were—she's the only person I ever met who had the luck to make dicekind work for her. She had eight eyes, which gave her uncanny powers of vision, and the power of mind control over psychically susceptible trolls, although she never used it for anything worse than a mild prank. I remember that she went out before her Leavetaking to find the biggest lusus she possibly could, and somehow found a spider bigger than most of our hives that she managed to convince Chynos to help her tame. The smug grin on her face when she saddled it up and rode it straight over the walls of the city is one of my fondest memories of her.

TA: 2he 2aiid that we had to enter iin thii2 order for 2ome rea2on   
CG: Enter what?   
TA: not really 2ure actually  
TA: the game ii gue22  
TA: iim 2uppo2ed to go la2t on our team  
TA: fiigured iid be niice and let you guy2 get a head 2tart   
CG: Haha!  
CG: Watch yourselves, blues.  
CG: The red team doesn't need a head start to wipe the floor with your sorry butts.   
TA: oh yeah?  
TA: watch there be a water mii22iion now  
TA: we have both the 2eadweller2  
TA: don't come cryiing when no one on your team can 2wiim   
CG: Loptra can swim just fine. It's her whole "pir8" thin9.   
TA: 2tiill can't breathe water   
CG: True, I 9uess.  
CG: It'll be nice to have everyone doin9 somethin9 to9ether a9ain. I haven't hun9 out with anyone except Astrae since you 9uys left.

Astrae Domina is our jade blood, who bonded with a young mother grub instead of a typical lusus, and so like many of her blood color, she still lived in the city, although almost all the way across it from my hive. She was always kind of motherly towards us, and was always trying to keep Loptra from getting the rest of us in trouble. At that time her mother hen ways were mostly focused on me, since the others had left the city and I was restless enough to go exploring the ruins on my own if she didn't come keep me company. She had something of a passion for clothes, and always used to pluck at the baggy jackets I preferred and shake her head sadly.

TA: yeah, ee 2aiid that thii2 would be a good way two briing everyone together agaiin  
TA: we 2hould be able to actually 2ee each other becau2e of how the game functiion2   
CG: That's 9reat!  
CG: 6uess I should 9et started, then.   
TA: yeah probably  
TA: get thiing2 2et up before your party  
TA: talk to ee iif you have any problem2   
CG: What about you?   
TA: ii'm goiing two 2leep  
TA: been up for three day2 workiing on thii2 2o

Diosri had terrible sleeping patterns. It was mostly because of his biopolar tendancies; when he hit a maniac phase, as he apparently had finishing this game, he would go for a week on as much sleep as the rest of us got in a day. Instead of sleeping, he would sit up coding all night, or sometimes go outside and throw things around with his telekinesis to burn off energy. Then he would get into a depressive episode and it would be nearly impossible to drag him out of bed for a few days. When he still lived in the city, we would organize interventions to drag him out if he didn't come online for two days. Sometimes that involved just shoving food into his hands and making him interact with us; sometimes, though, it literally involved dragging. That last job fell to me for a lot of the time, for some reason.

CG: Yeah, okay. 6et some rest.  
CG: I promise I won't wake you up unless there's a total disaster.  
CG: Like a meteor fallin9 towards your hive or somethin9.   
TA: yeah  
TA: 2peakiing of meteor2...   
CG: What?   
TA: ...nevermiind  
TA: ju2t the voiice2 won't 2hut up  
TA: that2 all

I should have realized that something was wrong then. Diosri didn't like to talk about what he heard from the voices of the doomed much, at least not with me; he talked more with Gehena about it, since at times she heard the voices of those already dead. I was curious, but I didn't push him on the subject.

TA: don't worry about me  
TA: go play your game   
CG: Alri9ht. Later.

\-- crashingGenesis [CG] ceased trolling technoAlchemist [TA] \--

\-- crashingGenesis [CG] began trolling gallivantingCausality [GC] \--

CG: Okay, I 9ot the 9ame.  
CG: Let's do this.   
GC: 4r3 w3 do1ng th1s m4n?   
CG: Isn't that meme a dead hoofbeast by now?   
GC: just f1n1sh 1t.   
CG: Fine. We're makin9 this happen.   
GC: ok4y, 1'v3 got th3 s3rv3r progr4m r34dy to run, 1 just n33d you to conn3ct.

I clicked in the client program, and it began to connect to Madira's computer. While it was loading, Gehena started to message me.

\--auroraApex [AA] began trolling crashingGenesis [CG] \--

AA: d1d 1t w0rk   
CG: I'm waitin9 for it to finish loadin9.  
CG: It's taking a lon9 time, I'm startin9 to 9et impatient.   
AA: haha  
AA: the wh0le game runs 0ff a server 1n deep space  
AA: 0ur techn0l0gy 1snt advanced en0ugh t0 run 1t 0n 0ur c0mputers  
AA: they w0uld pr0bably expl0de 0r someth1ng   
CG: Are you serious?   
AA: 1m c0mpletely ser10us  
AA: 1ts n0 w0nder n0 0ne c0uld make heads 0r ta1ls 0f the ru1ns bef0re  
AA: were lucky we have such a c0mputer w1z 1n 0ur ranks   
CG: Wow.   
AA: tell me when y0u get 1t w0rk1ng  
AA: 1f y0u d0nt get d1stracted by play1ng that 1s   
CG: Have a little confidence in me. I don't 9et THAT buried in my projects.  
CG: Unlike some people.   
AA: haha   
CG: You kind of disappeared off the face of the planet there for a while.   
AA: s0rry    
CG: It's okay. We were all just a little worried.   
AA: yeah  
AA: but the game 1s pr0bably the m0st 1mp0rtant th1ng 1ll d0 1n my l1fe   
CG: What, is it 9oin9 to save the world someday?   
AA: 1 w1sh  
AA: but n0  
AA: 1t w0nt save the w0rld  
AA: but whats g01ng t0 happen w0uld have happened 1f 1 f1n1shed the game 0r n0t   
CG: ...6ehena? What's going to happen?   
AA: 1 cant tell y0u yet  
AA: but please d0nt blame me f0r 1t   
CG: ?   
AA: play the game m1tyrs  
AA: thats all any 0f us can d0

\-- auroraApex [AA] ceased trolling crashingGenesis [CG] \--

I tried to not let her words worry me. Sometimes Gehena knew things, strange things, and you would think I'd have been used to it by then. I think the dead must have told her. I only talked to her about them once, a short conversation that burned itself into my mind forever. It was one of my first memories to return, on your side of the Scratch, and for a long time it was my only memory of her.

"Do you ever hear our Ancestors?" I asked her, on the night before her Leavetaking.

"Sometimes," she said, tucking one strand of hair behind her ear. "Some of them more than others."

"Do they ever talk about us?"

She smiled a little sadly. "They hope that we will have the strength to do what we have to do."


	3. Act -1.2: Time is ticking

GC: m1tyrs?   
CG: Sorry, 6ehena was talkin9 to me.   
GC: d1d sh3 g1v3 you 4ny clu3s 4bout wh4t 1'm suppos3d to do w1th th1s stuff?   
CG: What stuff?   
GC: h3r3, 1'll show you.

From seemingly out of nowhere appears a big hunk of metal; some kind of machine, with a square base and a pair of round platforms on the top, one much larger than the other. Both had strange etched patterns on the top. It set itself down in the center of my floor.

GC: 1t's 4 good th1ng you h4d cl34r3d out your h1v3 1n pr3p4r4t1on for l34v3t4k1ng. oth3rw1s3 th3r3 wouldn't b3 4nywh3r3 to put th4t th1ng.   
CG: What IS it?   
GC: 1t's c4ll3d 4n 4lch3m1t3r.   
CG: Okay, and what in Highbard's slams does it DO?   
GC: no 1d34! >:D  
GC: why don't you t4k3 4 clos3r look? 1 c4n't s33 too much d3t41l on my scr33n.   
CG: Wait, you can see me?   
GC: y34h, 1 c4n s33 your whol3 h1v3. don't th1nk you c4n s33 m3, though.   
CG: Nope, no flamin9 red jackets here.   
GC: 1'm not 3v3n w3e4r1ng my cool j4ck3t.  
GC: 1t's no l1k3 1t's cold 1n my h1v3.

I left my computer on the desk while I inspected the thing. Climbing on top it didn't seem to be a good idea—you never know what those magic looking circles might do, you know?—but I couldn't make any sense of what it was supposed to do. There weren't any apparent controls on it, either.

CG: I don't suppose it came with an instruction manual?   
GC: nop3. th4t's why 1 w4s hop1ng g3h3n4 s41d som3th1ng 4bout wh4t w3'r3 do1ng.  
GC: th3r3's 4 coupl3 oth3r th1ngs, too.   
CG: Oh?   
GC: y34h, h3r3, l3t m3 d3ploy th3m.

There was the loud noise of something large settling to the ground in the hallway outside my block. I stuck my head out the door and slipped out next to the narrow machine. It looked like it was designed to carve something, with a bunch of sharp blades hovering at the end of a long mobile arm. There was a slot of some sort in the front of it.

I went back into my room to my computer, making a mental note to get some kind of mobile computing device later.

GC: 1t's c4l3d 4 tot3m l4th3.   
CG: So I'm 9uessin9 it carves totems.  
CG: Whatever that means.   
GC: do you h4v3 4ny 1d34 wh4t go3s 1n th3 slot?   
CG: It looks about the same size as a captchalo9ue card.   
GC: huh, th4t must b3 wh4t th1s 1s for, th3n.

A card, with the image of some kind of fruit on it, appeared on the ground near my foot. Unlike a normal card, it had a bunch of holes punched in it.

I picked it up, turning it over in my hands. Whatever was inside, I couldn't get it out anymore.

GC: try putt1ng th4t 1n th3 slot.   
CG: On it.

I went out to the hallway and put the card in the slot. It fit perfectly, but nothing happened.

CG: We still need something to carve.   
GC: >:\ l3t m3 put out th3 th1rd th1ng.  
GC: 1t's c4ll3d 4 cruxtrud3r.

There was a wooden balcony out the door at the end of the hallway, which was always a little rickety. I never much worried about it; it was enough to support my weight, and the hive would be undergoing a full set of repairs after I left, so why worry about it? The only person who ever came out there with me was Diosri, and he was more likely to fly himself up and sit on the railing than to go up the stairs and around like a normal troll.

Well, Madira put the cruxtruder there. And it was a lot heavier than me.

CG: I don't like the sound of that 9roanin9.   
GC: 1 don't th1nk your lusus do3s, 31th3r.  
GC: h3's out und3r 1t ch4tt3r1ng 4nd cl4ck1ng h1s cl4ws.

Another ominous groan began. I imagined that I could hear the beams bending under the weight.

CG: Can you move it somewhere else?   
GC: 1 th1nk so. 

The creaking grew louder. And then—

CG: Tell me that crash wasn't what I think it was.   
GC: oh my god.

I didn't bother responding. I jumped up and ran out, past the lathe, to the door leading to the balcony. When I opened the door to survey the destruction, the balcony was gone.

The center of it, where the cruxtruder was, had fallen through, taking about half of the far side with it. The outside stairs were still there, although there was no path to them from the door.

I edged out to look down at the fallen cruxtruder.

It was square, smaller than the alchemiter, and had fallen on its side, which caused the lid on the top to come off. Something had come out of it, a round, flashing thing with a spirograph pattern, like the icon on the loading screen. It flashed various shades of black, white, and grey, and just kind of hovered there.

Under the broken planks and the overturned cruxtruder, I could see white carapace, and a single white claw.

I rushed back to my computer, slamming my fingers across the keys without even looking at the messages that had come in while I was gone.

CG: He's dead.  
CG: My lusus is DEAD.  
CG: I had only barely 9otten to fuckin9 know him and he's dead.  
CG: What the hell am I supposed to do now?  
CG: I can't 9o to my own fuckin9 Leavetakin9 and say "Madira dropped a piece of mysterious video 9ame equipment on my lusus and he died," now can I?  
CG: Not to mention that I'll probably never find another, because I have the 6ODDAMN BLOOD OF A HERO and no one had ever seen a lusus with my blood color before, EVER.  
CG: 6od, I'm such a failure.   
AA: n0 y0u arent   
CG: Shit, sorry 6ehena. Ima9ine that was all directed at Madira.   
AA: 1ts 0kay   
CG: We're still friends, ri9ht?   
AA: theres n0 reas0n 1 w0uld ever want t0 st0p be1ng fr1ends w1th y0u m1tyrs  
AA: and 1m s0rry ab0ut y0ur lusus   
CG: Thanks.   
AA: 1f 1t makes y0u feel any better  
AA: all 0f 0ur lus11 are g01ng t0 d1e   
CG: Wait, what?   
AA: 1t a part 0f the game   
CG: What the fuck?   
AA: we need them t0 pr0t0type 0ur kernelspr1tes   
CG: The weird flashin9 thin9?   
AA: yes  
AA: have mad1ra put y0ur lusus 1n 1t  
AA: 1tll bec0me y0ur spr1te  
AA: y0ull need 1t 1n the game   
CG: What kind of fucked up, lusus-murderin9, reality screw 9ame IS this?   
AA: y0u m1ght want t0 hurry  
AA: t1me 1s t1ck1ng

\-- auroraApex [AA] ceased pestering crashingGenesis [CG] \--

I allowed myself a minute or two to bury my head in my hands. I was scared, then. I didn't know what was going on, except that things weren't going the way they were supposed to go.

I turned back to my computer to tell Madira that I wasn't going to play anymore, that I was done with this, and to hell with the world.

GC: m1tyrs 1 4m SO sorry!  
GC: 1f you w4nt to stop pl4y1ng 1 und3rst4nd.  
GC: 4r3 you t4lk1ng to g3h3n4?  
GC: sh1t, th3r3's som3th1ng on the cruztrud3r.  
GC: 1t looks l1k3 4 countdown.  
GC: m1tyrs?  
GC: pl34s3 4nsw3r m3!   
CG: I'm here.  
CG: What is it countin9 down to?   
GC: 1 don't know, but 1 don't th1nk 1t c4n b3 4nyth1ng good!  
GC: 1 f1x3d th3 floor on your b4lcony, so you c4n go downst41rs 4nd g3t 4 b3tt3r look.

I went back down the hallway, and sure enough, the balcony was repaired, at least enough for me to get to the stairs. I didn't know exactly what the white section of floor was made of, but that didn't really bother me too much. Once I had made certain that it would support my weight, I dashed across it and down the stairs.

Madira had cleared the wreckage from my lusus' body, and set the cruxtruder back upright. The kernelsprite hovered between the two, as though waiting for something.

A screen set into the side of the cruxtruder, next to the round handle, displayed the countdown. Three minutes and forty two-one-zero seconds. I gulped, and spun the handle experimentally, wondering if it could be used to modify the countdown somehow.

A grey cylinder of some strange material popped out of the top of the cruxtruder. I caught it awkwardly, andcaptchalogued it, making a note of the name being "Cruxite dowel." Maybe this was what I was supposed to carve on the totem lathe?

Ignoring the kernelsprite for now, I ran back up the stairs. At the top, however, I was forced to a stop by what I could see in the sky.

The meteor bearing down on my hive wasn't as large as the ones that would fall later, like the one that came to Astrae's hive and destroyed the rest of the city, much less the ones I would later see in the Veil. At that moment, though, it was definitely the largest thing I could have imagined, and it was coming _straight at me_.

I ran for my computer.

CG: Well, I fi9ured out what we're countin9 down to!   
GC: wh4t?   
CG: There is a fuckin9 METEOR comin9 for my hive!   
GC: pl34s3 t3ll m3 you'r3 k1dd1ng.   
CG: I am so absolutely fuckin9 serious. There has never been a thin9 in this universe more serious than I am now, at this moment.  
CG: I am so fucked.   
GC: m4yb3 not! d1dn't g3h3n4 k33p t4lk1ng 4bout us "3nt3r1ng"?  
GC: m4yb3 th3 g4m3 1s suppos3d to s4v3 you som3how!   
CG: Oh 9od, I hope so.  
CG: Speakin9 of which, you need to put my lusus in the kernelsprite.   
GC: th3 wh4t?   
CG: The round blinky thin9.   
GC: why?   
CG: No idea, but 6ehena said to do it, and ri9ht now I think she has a lot more information than us.  
CG: I'm 9oin9 to 9o carve this totem.  
CG: How's time?   
GC: 2:16.

I ran into the hallway, putting the cruxite on the lathe. As I'd guessed, with all the pieces in place, the lathe spun to life and carved something out of the dowel. It was a weird vase-like shape and it didn't seem to do anything.

I was operating on instinct as I ran back to my room. The totem looked like it should go on the little round platform of the alchemiter, so I put it there. The machine can to life in turn, a strange fruit appearing and splitting open on the larger platform. I had never seen it before, and anyway it was also grey and didn't really look like a real fruit.

CG: What the hell?   
GC: ooh, 1t's 4 pom3gr4n4t3!  
GC: th3y'r3 4 k1nd of fru1t down h3r3 1n th3 south.  
GC: you'r3 only suppos3d to 34t th3 s33ds b3c4us3 th3 fl3sh 1s r34lly b1tt3r.  
GC: but norm4lly th3y 4r3n't gr3y l1k3 th4t. th3 s33ds 4r3 br1ght r3d.   
CG: Am I actually supposed to try and eat it?   
GC: 31 s3conds, do you h4v3 4 b3tt3r 1d34?

I didn't have a better idea. I didn't have any ideas at all. I grabbed a fistful of grey seeds and stared at them. There were six of them, almost the same shade as my skin. Funny, the details you remember at times like that.

I closed my eyes, fully expecting to die any second, and threw them in my mouth.


	4. Act -1.3 Can't you see it?

<== And so you entered.

And so I arrived in the Land of Phaze and Blood.

My first few minutes were spent thinking about how I didn't feel dead, and that game construct pomegranate seeds didn't taste very good for a last meal. Actually, they didn't really taste like anything at all, just data and blandness.

The window of my hive had grown dark. Well, that wasn't quite the right term for it; the light coming from below pulsed, as though alive. It certainly wasn't the bright festival lights of the city I had left. My computer was still the brightest source of light in the room. Somehow, it was still connected to the internet.

GC: m1tyrs?  
GC: 4r3 you ok4y?   
CG: Yeah.  
CG: Yeah, I'm fine.  
CG: Somehow.   
GC: wh3r3 4r3 you?  
GC: 4str43 just told m3 th4t th3r3's a b1g cr4t3r wh3r3 your h1v3 us3d to b3. sh3 s41d sh3 c4n s33 1t from h3r w1ndow.   
CG: I don't really know where I am.  
CG: It's like my whole hive 9ot moved... Well, wherever this is.  
CG: Hold on, I'm 9oin9 to 9o outside and take a look.

I edged out onto the balcony, taking in the new surroundings. The landscape was lit from below, a hazy red light that came from glowing rocks embedded in grey stones, sticking up from red rivers of some sort. Among the red ones that dominated the landscape there were a few other colors, greens and blues and purples; I would realize later that each member of our group had their blood color represented. They faded in and out slowly, each color in unison, but on patterns separate from each other. The sky was clouded over completely, keeping me from seeing any sort of stars or sun on the other side.

My hive hadn't changed, as far as I could tell; no evidence of a meteor impact. The balcony was still broken, with Madira's makeshift platform in place. When I looked over the edge, the cruxtruder was just as I had left it, except the timer's screen had gone black. There was no sign of my lusus or the kernelsprite.

Remembering how I would have missed the meteor if I hadn't looked up at the moment I did, I walked to the other end of the balcony and took a better look at the top of my hive.

Reaching into the distance above were a series of grey circles, the spirograph patterns on them shifting even as I watched. They went up above the roof, through the only gap I could see in the clouds, and out into space. I couldn't see how high they went, but I could see five of them from this angle, along with a small patch of black sky.

I went back inside, and seated myself at my computer.

CG: I think I'm on another planet.   
GC: who4, r34lly?   
CG: Can't you see it?   
GC: not much of 1t. my v13w 1s c3nt3r3d on your h1v3.   
CG: Well, I think you'll be seein9 it soon enou9h. There's probably a meteor headin9 for your hive, too.   
GC: sh1t.  
GC: 1 d1dn't th1nk of th4t. >:\   
CG: Diosri said that Nashir was 9oin9 to be after you, so he's probably your server player.

And speak of the clown, he chose that moment to message me.

\-- tragicComedy [TC] began trolling crashingGenesis [CG] \--

TC: BRO  
TC: i HEARD a MOTHERFUCKING skyrock FELL on YOUR hive  
TC: ARE you OKAY and SHIT?   
CG: If I wasn't, I wouldn't exactly be able to answer you, would I?   
TC: yeah, I guess NOT   
CG: Did Astrae just 9o around tellin9 everyone?   
TC: don't HAVE any CLUE  
TC: i HEARD from GEHENA   
CG: Ri9ht, of course.   
TC: she SAID i NEEDED to ALL up AND talk TO you  
TC: SOUNDED like IT was PRETTY important

Nashir Surmet was more of a lover than a fighter. He had one of the most relaxed personalities of all the trolls I've ever met, and he was really into the art scene. Theater, painting, slam poetry, the works. He'd moved down the coast a bit from the city, but not so far that he hadn't come visiting to see Chynos off on his Leavetaking. Those two were rap battle rivals of some sort, and it was always a great show for the rest of us when they got together.

He was also one of our psychics, although at first we didn't think his powers would be very useful in the game. He had some ability to manipulate dreams; back on our Alternia, trolls with those kinds of powers used them to give pleasant dreams to people in exchange for money, as a form of relaxation. On your Alternia, they were used to spread nightmares throughout the race, which is why sopor slime is used by nearly every troll there. Starting out, we had no idea how important dreams would be, except of course for Astrae and Gehena, but he had another power, too; the power to inspire bizarre, irrational fear in others. I only saw him use it a few times in our session, when a particularly large horde of monsters attacked us, but it would become commonplace on the other side of the Scratch as well.

CG: Yeah, that's one way of puttin9 it. Did Diosri 9ive you the 9ame?  
TC: SHIT no  
TC: THEY finished IT then?  
CG: I'm inside it.  
TC: :O  
CG: Yeah, it's a lot better than bein9 squashed by a meteor.  
CG: Here, I'll send you the files.  
\-- crashingGenesis [CG] sent tragicComedy [TC] the files 2GRUB2erver.exe and 2GRUBcliient.exe --  
CG: You'll want the server one first.  
CG: Diosri said that you're supposed to help Madira.  
TC: ARE there METEORS coming FOR her TOO?  
CG: I think so. I think for all of us, actually.  
CG: Diosri mentioned them before he left, but I didn't think too much about it.  
CG: He and 6ehena seem to know a lot more about this 9ame than the rest of us.  
TC: makes SENSE  
TC: they're THE ones WHO all UP and PROGRAMMED it  
CG: Did they really?  
CG: I mean, I know they're powerful psychics and all, but can they really predict when meteors are 9oin9 to hit?  
TC: I guess WE'LL find OUT

I heard a noise, something chattering in the hallway. It didn't sound like a troll.

CG: Crap.   
TC: what?   
CG: I just heard somethin9. Be ri9ht back.

I withdrew my favorite pistol from my specibus and cocked it, going to the door and kicking it open. I always had a bit of a soft spot for those sorts of scenes in movies.

At first, I wasn't quite sure what it was. The top half looked like my recently deceased lusus, but the bottom half was wispy and insubstantial, like some kind of ghost. The two of us stared at each other for a moment, before it clacked its claws at me and said, "You can put the fucking weapon away, I'm not going to hurt you."

I jumped; its voice was very like the screechings of my lusus, but there were only a few kinds of lusii that could speak the language of trolls properly, and bipedal crab monsters weren't among them. It had to be something to do with the game. Hesitantly, I returned the gun to my specibus. "You can talk?"

"I can now. It's some kind of fucking sprite thing." The sprite clicked its claws a bit. I smiled. Finally something that could be considered "good" in this game.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked.

"Land of Phaze and Blood. It's your shiny new planet."

"What about the others? Will they come here, too?"

"Some of them might eventually, if they get their sorry asses through the right gates. But no, each player gets their own planet."

A fragment of prophecy flashed through my mind—and he shall lead them to new planets, through the gates of dreams. "So the game will take us all off Alternia?"

"You'd better hope so." There was something a little sad in the Crabsprite's words. I felt that feeling in the pit of my digestive sac again; the one you get where you know something terrible is going to happen, but there's no way to stop it. I got that feeling a lot over the course of our session.

"Why?"

"Because the meteors are going to destroy it."


	5. Act -1.4: No actual words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, a day late here - sorry guys. Also, this mostly concludes my NaNoWriMo buffer, so updates might slow a bit from now on - I'm going to /try/ to keep to my once a week schedule, but I'm warning you now before I get a load of questions on the matter.
> 
> Speaking of questions, there is now an [Ask Tumblr](http://askbeforescratch.tumblr.com/) for this fic! I'm warning for casual spoilers (although not as many as you might think), but please go fill that ask box up! :3 While most asks will be answered in a text-based format, there's a few types of questions I plan to answer with art. Also there's worldbuilding stuff there.
> 
> Yeah, okay, enjoy.

"Because the meteors are going to destroy it."

"...Oh," I managed to reply. I dropped my gaze, staring at the ground. Crabsprite clicked a little to himself, then ran a comforting claw through my hair. "I... I think I need to tell the others this."

With that, I ducked from under his claws, and sprinted back to the computer.

TC: YOU there BROTHER?   
CG: Yeah, sorry.   
TC: so WHAT was MAKING all THE noise?   
CG: My sprite.  
CG: Which was my lusus this time yesterday, but then Madira dropped a cruxtruder on him and killed him.  
CG: Then we put him in the kernelsprite and he came back to life?  
CG: And told me that Alternia is 9oin9 to be destroyed by meteors.   
TC: THAT'S...  
TC: i DON'T think THERE are ACTUAL words FOR that, BRO.   
CG: I don't think so, either.  
CG: How is your lusus, by the way?

Nashir was one of the rare land dwelling trolls with a sea dwelling lusus, which meant that the two didn't spend as much time together as most pairs did. Recently, his lusus had gotten in a fight with some other ocean beast, and one of its wounds had become infected.

TC: he's NOT looking SO good  
TC: HE hasn't EATEN in TWO nights

I remembered what Gehena had said, about how all of our lusii would die. I could have said something, but I didn't. I didn't want to bring any more bad news than I already had.

TC: SHIT i THINK i JUST saw A meteor HIT the WATER off THE coast  
TC: HOPE our SEA-DWELLING sister IS okay  
CG: I'm sure she's fine, she doesn't live anywhere near you.

Chondi Kaitin was the female sea-dweller of our group. She was a bright, happy girl, but she could be a bit demanding sometimes. She loved the water, and all of the animals in it, and even some animals that we were all sure didn't actually exist. But she was the sort to give a swift, merciful death to something she knew she couldn't help, even if she would always cry about it afterwards, and she could never cry alone, but always had to find someone to talk out her feelings with. She told me once that she thought being alone forever was the worst fate that could happen than anyone, even worse than dying.

I'm sure you know what she became on the other side of the Scratch, by reputation if nothing else. In a way, even though I never met her in person in that lifetime, she was the one that affected me most. Out of all of us, she was the one that changed most. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that our signs didn't change, I don't think I could have ever associated the Chondi that I called a friend with the woman who was Empress of Alternia.

At that point, Madira's chat window started blinking at me again.

GC: you'r3 st1ll ok4y, r1ght?   
CG: I'm fine. You worry about your own meteor, and we can meet up later.   
GC: m3t3ors, mor3 l1k3. th3y st4rt3d f4ll1ng 4l ov3r th3 for3st h3r3.   
CG: How much time do you have?   
GC: 31:40.  
GC: n4sh1r 1s g3tt1ng th3 r3st of th3 stuff s3t up 1n my h1v3, 4nd 1 w4s go1ng to go ch3ck on my lusus.  
GC: just w4nt3d to m4k3 sur3 you d1dn't n33d 4nyth1ng b3for3 1 l3ft.   
CG: No, 9o see your lusus e99, if you think that's what you need to do.

Madira, unlike the rest of us, didn't have a living lusus. She struck out on her own after her Leavetaking, saying only that her lusus hadn't been born yet, but that it had spoken to her in her dreams. She didn't tell anyone what it was for the longest time, but she told me and Loptra the night before she left.

In the forest where Madira had made her adult hive, there were a set of scales, and on one of those scales was a giant egg. Although the egg had been there for centuries, it had never hatched, and most of the explorers to the region believed it to be made of stone. It was symbolic, they said; an egg, the symbol of birth, weighted against the ancient skull of a mother grub, symbolizing death.

Madira, however, insisted that the creature within the egg, a dragon, the last of its kind, would hatch someday, and be her lusus. She sent us all pictures of the egg when she arrived, and she was known to go out and sit beside it for hours, drawing whatever came to mind.

GC: sh3 s41d th4t sh3 would h4tch tod4y.  
GC: 1 th1nk th4t th3 m3t3os st4rt3d 4 f1r3 1n th3 for3st, 4nd 1t's f1n4lly w4rm 3nough for h3r to h4tch.  
GC: 1 w4nt to b3 th3r3 wh3n sh3 com3s out, you know?   
CG: Yeah, I think I understand. 9et 9oin9 already.   
GC: s33 1f you c4n f1gur3 out how to g3t oth3r k1nds of gr1st wh1l3 1'm gon3.   
CG: 9rist?   
GC: 1t's 4 g4m3 th1ng. k1nd of l1k3 r4w m4t3r14ls.  
GC: l1k3 th3 bu1ld gr1st 1 us3d to f1x your b4lcony. th4t's th3 only k1nd w3 h4v3 r1ght now.   
CG: There are other kinds?   
GC: 4pp4r3ntly so. th3r3's 4noth3r m4chin3 1n th3 g4m3, but 1t n33ds sh4l3 gr1st to d3ploy.   
CG: Huh. I'll keep an eye out, then.   
GC: t4lk to you l4t3r!

\-- gallivantingCausality [GC] ceased trolling crashingGenesis [CG] \--

I signed off for the moment and captchalogued my computer—it was bulky and nearly the maximum size I could fit in my sylladex, but I figured it would be better to keep it with me, just in case something happened to the rest of my hive. My crabsprite was nowhere in sight, so I went down the hallway and down the inside stairs to the floor below.

In the entertaining block, the decorations for my Leavetaking were still in place, bright red banners adorned with my sign hanging from the walls and over the front door. There was something kind of ominous about how empty and silent the place was; other than the banners, the block had been cleared of my personal items in preparation for the trip. The only things left were the pieces of furniture too large to take with me; a couch against one wall, a bookshelf, and the table and chairs in the dining chamber attached to the cuisineblock.

I was headed towards the front door when I heard a noise from in there. I stopped and turned around.

"Crabsprite?"

No answer. I crept back towards the source of the noise, cursing the slightly squeaky hinges of the block's door. I peeked around the edge of the door.

Something was peeking back at me, weird white eyes on black skin. We blinked at each other for a moment, both taking in what little we could see of each other. It had claws and a carapace like Crabsprite, but it was entirely, eerily black, except for its eyes and fanged mouth. I slammed the door shut and backed away.

There were monsters in my hive, and they definitely did not belong there.

I pulled out my gun, checked that it was loaded. (Later, I would discover that weapons in the Medium never needed to be reloaded, like in video games with infinite ammo; it saved my ass more times than I can count. I only ever found one exception to the rule, but I'll get to that later.) I didn't have the chance to do much more preparing than that, because the monsters apparently figured out how to work door handles while I was standing there like an idiot.

There were three of them, virtually identical, and before I really thought about what I was doing, I shot the one in front between the eyes. It dissolved immediately into oddly blue and purple shapes, and the other two monsters just kind of stared at the ground where it had been.

I stared too. It was the first time I had ever shot anything alive, really alive and not just some kind of paper target, and the only thing that kept me from having a breakdown right there was that there were still two more of them, and they were coming at me now, all dangerous claws and fangs, and it was me or them, really.

So I fired off another shot, and then a third, and down they fell. And then I slumped to my knees and cried.


End file.
